lalasmama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2011
- Messages
- 3,463
I've stayed at 3 of your options: PVI, DI&S, and Super 8 (Katella). I haven't read the other replies you have gotten yet, so they don't "taint" me
PVI is by far my favorite. Yes, it's often a little more expensive, but it's also physically nicer than the other two I've stayed at. You can call them on the phone to book a room, and it will be a little cheaper. It was recently updated (over the last 4-5 years, I think). Of course, it's location is a HUGE selling point. Other nice points: free hot breakfasts (saving you potentially $10-15/pp in the parks for a similar meal). Their rooms are large, especially the suites (we do the 2-room suite with 2 queens in the bedroom, and a sofa-bed in the living room). The towels are nice, big, and fluffy (important since I am a bit fluffy, so I need a towel big enough to cover). The beds are comfy; firm, but not "wake up with a backache" firm, they have a nice pillowy top. Nice linens. Never had a cold shower that I can remember, though I've had a few that wouldn't stay at the desired temp (would have it perfect, and then it would go up or down just enough to notice and readjust). I've had great luck with their customer service (first, when I lost my engagement ring in the room and didn't realize it until after check-out, they came with us back to the room, and they found the ring, and second when my dad was trying to pay for a night of our hotel stay, but couldn't figure out how to do it over the phone [they thought he was trying to change our reservation, not pay for a night of our stay], they instantly did it when I explained face-to-face what was going on, and third, a sweet little present waiting for us on our honeymoon stay). They also generally call the room each evening to see if there is anything we need. The pool is always nice and clean, doesn't have an overwhelming chlorine smell, and I've never gotten any weirdness from it (more on this in a few paragraphs). The pool is rarely busy, though, in the late evening, there are often people there. Overall, the property is usually fairly quiet unless (1) it's palm trimming day, or (2) it's time to get to the parks each morning. But, in the case of the palm trimming, it wasn't going on until park-opening time. I'd try to request a room closer to the front of the hotel; that will cut any potential construction noise.
Super 8 (I'm just going to type S8 for this to make it easier) was the first motel I stayed at in the area. I've stayed there as a single mother with a 8-year-old, and on a solo trip (30-something-year-old woman). The property is clean. I didn't visit the pool here at my stays. The rooms were undergoing remodeling/refurnishing at my last visit there in 2012, so I assume all the rooms have new beds and new furnishings now. Rooms were a fair size; I didn't feel squished in the 2Q rooms, with or without kiddo being there. The shower temperature could be a bit hit-or-miss, and sometimes we had lukewarm showers. I've had one room that smelled like it had been closed up for a while; the other was fine. The closed-up smell wasn't enough to really bother me, just something I noticed in passing. Rooms are fairly light-feeling. Beds were on the mushy side, but not uncomfortable. Nice linen. Breakfast was minimal--packaged pastries or muffins, some off-brand cereal, etc. Each of my visits, the staff was friendly and accommodating, but a little too chatty for my preference. But, I have seriously bad social anxiety, so if I don't expect/know how a conversation is going to go, I start getting freaked out, so I didn't really want to chat about the area, where we're going, what we're doing, where we're eating, etc... In the case of one of my days when I was leaving, they wanted to make sure my stay was pleasant, that I had a good time, etc., and I told them I was running late; friendly chatting stopped, and they had me checked out in a matter of 2 minutes. Yay! If my husband didn't insist on Harbor lodging for my solo trips, I'd totally be a S8 devotee. Cons: the walk sucks at night. Ever night, I'd walk back thinking, "If I just spent a little more money, I'd be at my hotel now..." as I walked by each motel. And towels were basic, small towels.
DI&S.... I'll try to be nice about this one, but I've had some bad luck with them. The location is great. The room was fine--a standard 2Q size that felt a little small (BFF and I couldn't pass each other at the foot of the beds). Beds were hard enough that I gave serious consideration to sleeping on the floor or going to get an air mattress from Target to sleep on instead. I've heard not all rooms have such hard beds (this was well beyond "extra firm" in my opinion), but our room had a hard bed, and a super-hard bed, so that's my only experience. Towels were regular, small, scratchy hotel towels. Water for showers was either scalding or freezing. Indoor pool with what I can only call a "room with a view"--everyone stares into the windows at the pool while walking by, so I feel like I'm on display to the whole world. Add that to the seriously strong chlorine smell, and it makes it an unwelcoming place to be. BFF and I went in the hot tub once, and came out with a lovely case of folliculitis paired with a chemical sensitivity that made my legs burn bad enough that I couldn't wear pants in January for the rest of the trip. Breakfast was similar to that of S8, but with some cut fruit ("to make it easier to peel" they said, but made it impossible to easily take back to the room for a morning snack). Customer service I found to be frustrating at times for their nosiness, and other times infuriating for refusal to "do the right thing" in my opinion. The nosiness comes from 5 (yes, FIVE!) calls when I made a note that we would be checking around 11pm on my reservation; they started calling at 9pm asking where we were, when we would be there, did we still need our room, etc. Answered their call on call #3, when we were getting off the plane after being delayed on both legs of the flight (when they had called the other 2 times). Explained our plane was delayed, we would be there, we were getting into the cab in 20 minutes. And then they still managed to call TWICE more to make sure we were on our way. They lost us as customers, though, when my FIL died less than 3 days before I was supposed to go on a solo trip. I called them at like 36 hours before check-in, and they said they wouldn't charge me "if they could fill the room" but there wasn't a manager to speak with, and the manager's name kept changing depending on when we called, and there was no way to know if they really had sold the room to someone else or not. They told us to call back in a few days. In the mean time, it appeared on our end that the charges were reversed, so we let it go. And then 10 days later, there was a room charge. Yes, I know, I didn't cancel before the 48-hour window. But we're not talking about some huge conglomerate motel chain here; they could have made an exception. We even offered to fax them proof of the death to show that we weren't lying, and they refused. So, we had an additional 3-4 stays already planned, and cancelled every single one of them. No skin off their back, I know, but still frustrating to be in the middle of the unexpected death of my FIL. They did try to charge us another first night's stay for another planned trip that we cancelled, but when we called, we had a cancellation number (when we cancelled all the stays after the incident with FIL's passing), so they reversed those charges immediately. I will not stay there again, no matter how cheap the room is, because of these experiences.
